Of Women and Men

By Len Wallick

Out of necessity, this blog is written before the day you will see it. On this day, December 2, 2010, perhaps even as you are reading this, NASA will be holding a news conference “…to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.”

This blog will not — repeat, not — attempt to predict the nature of the finding that will be discussed. It is worth noting that today has two sets of aspects that involve more than two objects. Those two aspect sets will be the subject of this blog. Whatever connection there is with the results of the news conference will be left to you who peruse and/or affix comments to these words.

But first, let’s look ahead to the weekend.

Coming up this Sunday, the Sagittarius New Moon will find Sol and Luna locked in conjunction with the Great Attractor, the two centaurs Pholus and Hylonome, Ixion — an object that ventures out past Neptune — and Narcissus, an asteroid. Try to look away from that one. Eight hours or so later, Uranus will station direct in Pisces and join the rest of the major planets in unanimous forward motion for a handful of days. How often does that happen?

But wait. There’s more! The day before the New Moon, Mars (also in Sagittarius) conjoins the Galactic Center. Almost exactly 48 hours after the martian hook-up precisely as Uranus is stationing direct, Mercury will conjoin Pluto in Capricorn. Be a pal, somebody. Please pass the smelling salts and let me hold onto them until Monday.

But that will be then, this is now. No point in going all Uranus and getting ahead of ourselves. There is, after all, no time like the present. There is more to do than buying tickets for the weekend. Today, after all, is all we have and today has a lot. Most notably, the waning crescent Moon moves into Scorpio to conjoin Venus while Mercury sextiles them both. Actually, Venus and Mercury have been in a functional sextile for most of this week, holding a mutually supportive yoga. Also, we have a really interesting opposition between a centaur and an asteroid that literally promises to capture the moment as the axis of a yod. Interested now? Thought so.

Let’s start up front with Venus and proceed to the back yod. This morning marks a significant attainment for Venus. On this date it achieves what is called its “greatest brilliancy” during the 2010/11 tenure in the East as what we colloquially call the “morning star”. Greatest brilliancy does not mean that it is brighter than any other day. What it does mean is that from our perspective on Earth, the sunlit portion of Venus is greater than on any other day. It is an apparent, relative and geometric phenomenon.

Just weeks ago, when Venus was close to the rising sun, it was low on the horizon. Hence it was magnified by our atmosphere much as the Moon is just as it rises or prepares to set. Those fortunate enough to see it today will find it much higher in the sky, only five weeks away from the greatest western elongation. So although it will not seem so big and bright, the day of greatest brilliancy is a special day for this planet’s cycle and for our relationship with it. How appropriate that Venus should pick this day to conjoin the Moon in mysterious, attractive, repulsive Scorpio.

Among the commonly acknowledged traditional objects of pre-science western astrology, the Moon and Venus are the sole expressions of the Goddess. The rest are good ol’ boys and don’t you fergit it. That imbalance imbues western civilization to this day. Not to speculate mind you, but today’s conjunction could be a turning point or demarcation towards a balancing of the force in a male supremacist culture. It’s interesting to consider the timing. One member of the conjunction at greatest brilliancy while the other is a bent bow near release, contrasting and complementing each other in the sign where transformation takes place in the dark — as if in a chrysalis. The previous order must yield so a greater creation may emerge. The time is remarkably like existence beneath a subduction plate, where heat and pressure will achieve metamorphosis.

Mercury, the most feminine member of the boy’s club, is there to endow both male and female clubs from Capricorn even though up until recently it has endowed only one. It brings the quality of mind taken form to the intuitive, emotional and passionate desire of the conjunction. Arthur C. Clark opined that, among all the riches of the universe, none is more rare or of greater value than mind. It is of and for creation. This aspect of two planets and a luminary are the goddess mind emerging with exquisite timing, combining the proud, enduring fecundity of Scorpio with the solid, enduring, expression of creation that may come of Capricorn. With Pluto setting the table in that cardinal earth sign, the Scorpio energy is not only supported, it has the potential to be set in stone.

This potential of course, will not be realized of its own volition. That’s where human beings come in. The decisions we make every day, individually and collectively, decide what is finally expressed in form. Scoff if you will, that’s the call from this corner. That is what’s at stake if astrology means anything at all.

Then there is that yod. It’s been a long time since we have discussed that delicate, powerful, perishable and comparatively rare alignment, so let’s start with the basics and go to particulars. As the word implies, a yod is shaped like the letter ‘Y’. The upper part of the letter is taken to be two objects in sextile, sixty degrees apart, like the current separation between Mercury and the Venus-Moon conjunction. But they are not a part of the formation we are looking at today. Rather it is Ceres in Capricorn and the mean lunar apogee of which we speak.

An apogee is the point in the orbit of an object that is the greatest distance from the object being orbited. The Moon, the Earth and Sun have this complex gravity game going. Luna orbits Terra, for sure. But it is not the center of the Earth that the Moon orbits around. The barycenter, as it is called, is somewhere between the middle and the surface of our globe. Add to that the muscle of solar gravity and Luna does not trace a smooth ellipse, more like it’s on an elastic leash, osculating rather than orbiting. Thus the true apogee is all over the place over time whereas the mean apogee is an attempt to average and smooth the curvature traced by the placement.

So, what does this have to do with astrology? Well, the mean lunar apogee is the the most popular location of the hypothetical point known as Black Moon Lillith. In the mish-mash of western civilization, Ceres and Lillith have different origins, but their mythology comes together in a meaningful way. Both women are distinguished by knowing what they wanted, being present to what they felt and standing in the power of that even if it meant defying the male supremacist paradigm that their very identity was a part of. Come what will, the heck with the consequences. Their sextile means they are supporting each other, aiding and abetting what they have in common.

The other part of the letter ‘Y’, the ‘leg’ or ‘stick’, if you will, is a pointer of sorts in the yod of astrology. Separated by each member of the sextile by an awkward, unsustainable 150 degrees, it is where the pressure is directed. Today, it is the asteroid named Photographica. While astrologers are still developing the use of asteroids, the apparent consensus indicates that they can be interpreted in a straightforward manner. What you see is what you get. Photographica has been on the scene to capture the moment a lot in recent years. Have you ever been caught staring at someone who expressed their discomfort by saying “take a picture, it’ll last longer?” That’s a possible straightforward interpretation of Photographica at the apex of this alignment. But this is no ordinary yod.

Very special yods have a fourth member. Precisely in the middle of the sextile,  precisely opposing the apex, and oddly offering the potential to relieve the pressure. Today, that is the most difficult of centaur planets, Nessus, just past the mid point of its long, challenging trip through Aquarius. A trip, yes it is.

Like asteroids, centaur planets are relatively new to human awareness and imagination. Astronomically, they are erratic almost-comets that venture into the outer solar system, playing a dangerous game with the gravitational fields of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Mavericks and outlaws with one foot in the grave and the other in the galaxy. In astrology they have come to be associated with shadow material.

It starts like this. You get a tough break, usually when you are young and forming. You survive but it marks you. Not like a scar, though. It’s something you carry because you have to. Even though it’s heavy, even if it stunts or distorts your growth. Even if it slows your progress. You carry it until the time and place is created or found to put it down. So relieved, you are stronger for having carried it. But you cannot realize that strength until you put it down.

Nessus symbolizes the heaviest of shadow material, abuse. Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, show me a person who was not marked by some kind of abuse when they were young and forming. Nessus in the middle of the yod’s sextile is at least as uncomfortable as Photographica out there on the apex. Yet the two have something in common, even though opposed. The resolution begins with awareness and that’s what astrology is for. It continues with engagement and support and that’s what we are for.

So on this day when science rules the news, astrology is going on. Auguries appear as well as indications of the potential emergence and merging of goddess energy too long a supplicant — but that potential requires human effort in order to be fulfilled. We then have a complementary and contrasting aspect — the obverse potential when the refusal to supplicate becomes rigid and intransigent. What happens to those caught in the bargaining?

What does this have to do with a discovery pertaining to extraterrestrial life? Probably nothing. You can be sure other astrologers will find aspects for that and profit from it. For human beings, here on Earth is the only place we have and all we have in this place is each other. It is thus that your humble servant has selected two alignments that address our predicament and potential at this auspicious and dangerous time. Perhaps you will find it in your heart to forgive your foolish messenger.

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